


Riptide Can't Beat Math Problems

by Smackaroney



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, Fluff, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:48:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28422708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smackaroney/pseuds/Smackaroney
Summary: Percy and Annabeth are attending New Rome University, and Percy is struggling to pass his College Algebra class. He and Annabeth study the night before his final to make sure that he passes. Annabeth struggles to figure out how to help Percy, but maybe all Percy needs is a little encouragement.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson
Comments: 4
Kudos: 30
Collections: Percabeth Discord Secret Santa





	Riptide Can't Beat Math Problems

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dorkzrul](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dorkzrul/gifts).



> This was part of a Secret Santa fan fiction exchange on the Percabeth Discord! This particular submission was for Dorkzrul. Happy Holidays!
> 
> Percabeth Server

Percy and Annabeth sat together in the study lounge of New Roman University. Annabeth slumped back in her chair, her hands woven through her now disheveled braids. In front of her sat a closed book, a cup of coffee, and a pencil that looked like Mrs.O’Leary had gotten to it.

Percy on the other hand, looked much much worse. He was hunched over a page of scribbles. His barely passable handwriting filled up the spaces between lines, snaking up into the margins, and was even snuck into places where it barely fit, written upside down. He dragged his hands down his face, looking up at Annabeth, whose eyelids were drooping dangerously low.

“I can’t. I just can’t okay? Nobody has ever been this bad at math.”

Annabeth groaned. “Are you SURE that you have brains in your head, or did you actually swap it for a sea sponge?” Percy glared at her. “Okay okay. Not funny right now, I know. But look-”. Annabeth hoisted herself up, criss crossing her legs beneath her against the coarse fabric of the industrially produced armchair. She reached across the table, her war scarred pencil in hand, and pointed at a particularly heinous looking mess of graphite etchings. “-you just have to factor the equation. This one isn’t a perfect square, so you have to use the quadratic formula.” She looked up at Percy, and was met with a glassy gaze that rivaled jade marbles. “Perseus Jackson, pay attention! Do you _want_ to flunk out of college?”

Percy dug his fingers deeper into his cheeks. “No…but if I don’t pass this class I can’t continue to the next semester. I thought this school was supposed to be like, easier for demigods to understand or something.”  
Annabeth slammed the pencil down on the table and stood up, arms straddling the textbook that was in front of Percy. “It _is._ That doesn’t mean they’re going to just let you pass classes without actually trying to pass them though.”  
Percy groaned, pressing his forehead against the table and dragged the mess of papers toward himself. “ _Fiiiine_.”

Percy fiddled with his notebook, revealing a clean page, impressions of firm pencil marks from particularly frustrating problems giving away the intensity of the study session. Minutes passed as Percy struggled with the quadratic equation, eraser rubbings piling up as he began to unravel the numbers, and erased it over and over again. Several times Annabeth would coax an answer out of him. She moved to his side, a hand on Percy’s back as he sweated over his barely legible scribblings. 

Annabeth would often hold her breath, roll her eyes, and groan as Percy struggled to stay on task. It was hard to tell if he kept getting distracted because the problems were challenging, or if the problems were challenging because he was getting distracted, but either way, his focus was not on his work. At one point, he stopped dead in the middle of a problem, rested his head on his hand and stared at Annabeth starry eyed.  
Annabeth gave him a quizzical look. “What is it? Did you forget how to find the perfect square again?” 

“No, I’m just really impressed with how hard you’re trying to help me. I’m hopeless, but you won’t give up.”  
Annabeth blushed, and gave his head a playful shove. “Stay focused Seaweed Brain, or you won’t pass your exams.”  
“Okay…. Okay. I got this.”

Annabeth sat back in her chair, and watched Percy struggle to solve the problems in front of him. After a moment or two, she wordlessly snuck away, leaving Percy to his studies. She checked her analog watch. The time was 11:42 pm. Percy’s final was 10 am tomorrow. She had just over 10 hours to help him grasp something that a professor hadn’t been able to make him understand in four months. Great.

Annabeth slumped against the wall in the hallway, racking her brain for an answer. How could she make sure that her doofus of a boyfriend didn’t flunk out of college, or at least avoid having to repeat a course. He had a hard time paying attention to things that didn’t interest him, that was something she was familiar with, but he just had less self discipline that she did; probably something to do with his father, but that wasn’t something she could solve, unfortunately.

She began to idly make her way down the dormitory hall as she thought. Having him re-read the chapter was no good, she had trouble getting through that much technical jargon herself. He’s reward driven, she thought, so maybe…. Nah better not. She put that idea right out of her head. It wouldn’t help anyone right now. She stopped in the middle of the hallway and bounced on her toes for a moment, her fingers twitching with frustration. Annabeth was normally a fantastic problem solver, but for some reason this one was stumping her. She chewed on her lip.

Percy, on the other hand, had all but given up. Without Annabeth in the room, his ability to motivate himself to focus on his studies was all but gone. He’d begun to doodle pictures of his sword, Riptide, surfing with hippocampi swimming alongside the surfboard. Not his best work of art, but quite a lot better than the math he’d just been trying to do. After a few minutes, Percy stood up and took a short walk around the room. Annabeth hadn’t returned yet, and that usually meant one of two things; she’d either been confronted with a monster that had somehow found its way into the boy’s dormitory hallway at New Rome University, or she's got stuck trying to solve a puzzle. Percy peeked his head out of the doorway. Sure enough, there was Annabeth. He couldn’t help but laugh. If she were thinking any harder, she would have steam coming out of her ears. He imagined that’s probably what he had looked like trying to remember how to do algebra.

Percy walked up to her and softly placed a hand on her shoulder. He could feel her shoulder tighten as her hand flew up to his, an iron grip on his wrist, a soft gasp of surprise escaping her mouth. She turned to look him in the face, her eyes wide. “PERCY!” she stopped herself from yelling, speaking in a forceful whisper instead. 

“Sorry sorry! I forgot that- I forgot…”

Annabeth’s face softened. “It’s fine. How’s the studying coming along?”

“It’s… I’ve almost got it actually. I just… need you there to check a few things. Is that okay?”  
Annabeth sighed. She took Percy’s hand in hers and pulled him close.

“Fine, but you’d better pass all of your classes next semester without my help, got it?”

“Got it.”

Annabeth pulled the collar of Percy’s shirt, their faces just a breath apart. They both smiled for a moment before their lips pressed together softly, a tender kiss, before releasing his shirt.  
“Now, go show me how to find factors using the quadratic equation.”  
Percy took her hand and dragged her back into the study room. Annabeth draped herself over his shoulder as Percy struggled his way through the last few problems. Annabeth gave him encouragement in the form of a kiss on the cheek, or a squeeze on the shoulder when he asked for clarification on something he was writing. He really seemed to be getting it, but only his finals would tell. 

Time ticked by, the two of them struggling together through the study worksheet that Annabeth had written up for him. Slowly but surely, Percy’s work became faster and easier for him to complete, each problem seeing less questions, less pauses, and less re-traces. Annabeth looked up at the clock. It was 2:12 am. Percy’s final was in less than 8 hours, and the two of them needed sleep. Percy’s head was nodding as he struggled to put the final parenthesis around a factored equation.

“Alright Percy, let’s call it a night. I think you’ve got it.”

“Really? I was starting to think that the longer I stay awake, the better at this I get.”  
Annabeth gave him a playful sock on the arm.

“Get up! If you stay up any longer, you’ll just sleep past your final and flunk by default.”  
Percy stood up, yawning from his growing lack of sleep, and began to wobble his way toward the door of the study room.

“Wait!”

Annabeth grabbed his wrist. Percy turned to look at her, his eyelids barely staying up, a goofy smile on his deliriously tired face. “Yeah?” She grabbed the collar of his shirt and whispered, “You’d better do well on your test.” before brushing past him and exiting the room. Percy stood there for a moment before taking a deep breath and rushing away to his own dorm for a night of restful sleep.

The next eight hours passed uneventfully. Percy woke up in time for his final, and miraculously was able to answer every question on the test, with just a few seconds left. He turned in his paper to the professor, who, at his request, gave it a cursory glance right then and there. Not to give him a grade, just to let him know whether he’d be returning to class the next semester or not. The professor took what felt like an excruciatingly long time to look over his test. Percy wrung his hands softly. The professor looked up at him from the test and gave him a thumbs up. After a silent victory dance and a fist pump, Percy rushed out of the test room and whipped out his cell phone.  
  
 _Calling Annabeth_  
  


“Hello?”  
  
“Hey Annabeth, guess what?”


End file.
